GB Feature: SKALD: Against the Black Priory Preview

With the one-man team at Scape-IT AS preparing the final launch of SKALD: Against the Black Priory this fall, and given the time we have already spent on the turn-based CRPG during its multiple early builds, we are finally ready to dole out a proper three-page preview. A fistful of paragraphs to whet your appetite:

And this highlights SKALD’s evolution from an idea, to a crowdfunded project, and now to a mostly finished product. During its development, pretty much all of the game’s systems were adjusted to become more player-friendly, but also more complex.

For example, early on, the game’s combat resembled the original Wasteland or The Bard’s Tale, where you gave orders to your team and then just waited for things to resolve. Only instead of a purely text-based experience, SKALD offered a visual representation for these battles.

But after a few pivots, the game’s combat now is a proper turn-based affair, where you can move your characters across the battlefield, use various combat feats, and cast spells in a fashion similar to the Gold Box games, only with a more reasonable encounter rate and enemy numbers.

Plus, instead of teleporting you to some featureless arena every time you run into some foes, the combat now takes place directly on the game’s map, which adds some variety and opens up plenty of new tactical opportunities.